THEATRE
Twelfth Night ★
Melbourne Shakespeare Company, St Kilda Botanical Gardens, until December 22

Even by the elastic standards of al fresco Shakespeare, this Twelfth Night is dire. Audiences should not expect a production in the same league as the Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, directed by Iain Sinclair in September with an astonishing cast of actors. No, this is pop Shakespeare so amateurish that it barely touches the sides of the gender-bending rom-com.

A loose musical approach and broad panto comedy worked fine in the MSC’s rose garden production of The Merry Wives of Windsor – a low comedy (written because Queen Elizabeth I wanted a Falstaff spin-off, according to theatre legend) that’s as close as Shakespeare came to ringing it in. That same tactic doesn’t fly with Twelfth Night, which ties romantic knots of a more various, delicate and melancholy hue.

Such nuances get short shrift in this radically condensed version, which has been hatcheted down to 90 minutes, the bare plot points squished around an extended playlist of a cappella pop songs. These are performed with gusto, though the musical choices get increasingly bizarre – Doris Day, the Spice Girls, and, er, Chumbawamba? – and there are so many of them the novelty wears thin.

Virtually no scene remains unpopped by pop songs; if the musical enthusiasm never flags, an undercurrent of desperation creeps in, like a jam session in someone’s dad’s garage that’s gotten way out of hand.

Compared with the acting, however, the songs seem the lesser of two evils. The script has indeed been savagely cut, but the fatalistic embrace of broad caricature comes across as a cringing admission of defeat, a betrayal of the complex, psychologically astute seductions and follies Shakespeare wove into this play.

Music might be the food of love. It’s no substitute for a talented Shakespearean performance, however, and with few exceptions, the actors seem intent on grinding Twelfth Night into a so-bad-it’s-unspeakable cult comedy.

Had the cast been able to give us a few more of the play’s greatest hits, the surfeit of song would have been forgivable, and this production might have approached the general standard of Australian Shakespeare Company’s annual pop Shakespeare in the Royal Botanic Gardens. Those al fresco productions can be rough and ready and pander to the groundlings, too, but unlike this musical mess, still tend to deliver the guts of the play.
Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead

JAZZ
Strange Attractors + Andrea Keller’s Transients ★★★★
Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival, The JazzLab, December 9

One of the hallmarks of the Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival – curated each year by the tireless Sonja Horbelt – is its presentation of double-bill concerts on most nights. Horbelt, who assembles the program each year with minimal funding and maximum dedication, aims to provide opportunities for as many artists as possible, and the double bills are often designed to present acts with contrasting rather than complementary approaches.

A case in point: Monday night’s pairing of Strange Attractors with Andrea Keller’s Transients. The former featured two artists constructing fully improvised soundscapes; the latter featured a beguiling set of carefully crafted compositions.

Strange Attractors (guitarist Jess Green and drummer Dylan van der Schyff) is inspired by nature’s propensity to forge patterns out of chaos. Green and van der Schyff are only occasional duo partners, but their rapport was palpable as they embarked on a spontaneous exploration of texture, tone, energy and rhythm. Traditional instrumental roles were eschewed in favour of a free-flowing exchange of sounds and ideas. Green scratched or tapped percussively on her strings, and van der Schyff switched between sticks, mallets, bare hands and cymbals to conjure images of swarming insects or clouds scudding swiftly across a turbulent sky.

Keller’s set served as an album launch for the latest recordings in her long-running Transients project, in which the pianist works with an evolving roster of musicians in small-group settings. On this occasion, she shared the stage with three wonderfully empathetic colleagues (Angela Davis on alto sax, Sam Anning on bass and Kyrie Anderson on drums), performing selections from Transients Vol. 3 (For Sorrow) and Vol. 4 (For Joy).

Keller’s exquisite melodies and inventive arrangements were enhanced by the band’s ability to intuitively shape the mood of each piece, from the insouciance of Carefree Daze to the quiet optimism of Hope is the Thing with Feathers – something to hold on to, perhaps, as another tumultuous year nears its end.
Reviewed by Jessica Nicholas

The Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival continues until Sunday.

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